Examples

It is generally understood that innovation and standardization are mutually supportive. CEN and CENELEC contributed through two research studies to the body of evidence supporting this beneficial link.

During the study by Technopolis, a number of case studies had been identified as ‘Success Stories’ where standardization had played a key role in overcoming any obstacles encountered in European research projects. In addition, a number of fact sheets are available of research projects thad had included standarization in their work plans. All of these case studies with an indication of the resulting standardization deliverable can be found below.

Advanced Manufacturing

ENCASIT: The European Network for Coordination of Advanced System Integration was a two-year project focused on gathering and disseminating information on semiconductor and microelectronic assembly, with the aim of coordinating developments in the European electronics manufacturing industry.The project finished in December 2011, having developed a series of international standards that enable better communication between manufacturers, designers and suppliers in the co-design, procurement and use of semiconductor products.

Energy

2ndVegOil was a 3-year FP7 research project, which focused on the research, development and demonstration of a ‘second generation’ of vegetable oil-based fuels for use in advanced engines, particularly in the agricultural sector.The project finished in 2011, having demonstrated the viability and suitability of cleaned vegetable oils for use in advanced diesel engines. This resulted in a CEN Workshop Agreement for pure plant oil, which will meet the needs of the next generation of vegetable-oil based fuels.

iSOIL was a research project co-funded through the FP7 Environment programme. It focused on providing techniques and recommendations to enable fast and reliable high-resolution mapping of soil properties, functions and threats, as part of a wider European strategy to better protect and restore Europe’s degraded soil.The project ended in November 2011, having developed a European pre-standard focusing on best practice approaches to electromagnetic measurement. This new standard provides a best practice approach for each stage of the process and enables better comparison and joint interpretation of measurements done at different times and with different instruments.

Health

ICT

ESTRELLA was an 18-month FP6 project. It brought together European companies and experts in legal knowledge systems to collaborate on the development, demonstration and dissemination of an innovative and open platform for sources of law. The project finished in 2008, having proposed and developed a European pre-standard for an open XML interchange format for legal and legislative resources. CEN MetaLex provides a generic framework that standardizes the manner in which sources and references are represented in XML, regardless of their jurisdiction. It opens up new markets for legal software providers and facilitates the manner in which users can access and consult legal texts.

Security

SECUR-ED is a FP7 project involving stakeholders from across Europe. It seeks to create a European improvement in mass transportation security by developing and demonstrating a set of tools and processes, packaged as modular solutions. The project began in 2011 and is currently embarking on demonstrations to validate solutions. It will be completed in early 2014.Existing standards have formed the basis for project terminology and provided minimum requirements for the developing architecture – helping to ensure interoperability and uptake of project outputs. The consortium is also committed to supporting the ongoing evolution of standards, and is engaged in an iterative process with various standardization bodies. This ensures that best practices and interoperable solutions are at the heart of the project’s work, whilst any relevant lessons learnt are also fed back to support future standardization efforts.

Transport

SMART-CM (Smart Container Chain Management) was a 3-year FP7 research project, which focused on the development of Container Security Devices (CSDs); technology that provides continuous monitoring of the status of container from door-to-door.The project finished in October 2011, having developed a CEN Workshop Agreement setting out specifications for CSDs and the communication of container security information between different stakeholders, which goes some way to achieving a global solution for secure intermodal supply chains.